Master and Builder

Summary: Henrik Ibsen's plucks a melancholy tune on the strings of married men of all ages in his masterpiece about life and the road to self-actualization, The Master Builder. Ibsen's Master Builder stops looking to himself and his family for validation and instead seeks that approval through the ignorance and innocence of youth, an unreliable and misleading source.

Henrik Ibsen's plucks a melancholy tune on the strings of married men of all ages in his masterpiece about life and the road to self-actualization, The Master Builder. Three years before it was penned Ibsen, age 61, met an 18 year-old girl and feel in love with her. The subsequent love nearly destroyed both of their lives. Ibsen, according to critic

Bill Hagerty, "came to his senses in time" to prevent this. Another critic writes, "his marriage was joyless, but a few episodes of friendship with young women broke the austerity of his life." Solness did not come to his senses "in time," to save himself. His end is Ibsen's way of letting the rest of us know it is only too late to change once it is

actually too late to change. I really enjoyed this play and its genius about our social plight. Solness was no doubt a...